The present invention relates to entity analytics, and more specifically, to determining relationships between entities in an entity analytics system.
Entity analytics systems typically are configured to determine relationships between entities, such as “is a” or “is related to a” relationships. An “is a” relationship exists between two observed entities if the observations reflect an identical entity (i.e., two observations refer to the same entity). Using a ship tracking system as an example, if two observations of oceangoing vessels reflect common positions, crew members, tonnage, registration numbers, etc., the system determines that there is a 1:1 relationship (i.e., an “is a” relationship) between the two entities. An “is related to a” relationship exists between two observed entities if the observations reflect sufficiently common characteristics, but not an exact match. Again, using a ship tracking system as an example, an “is related to” relationship exists between entities, for example, if two observed entities have similar tonnages, but different positions, crew members, etc.
Typically, entity analytics systems are configured to determine “is a” and “is related to a” relationships between different entities using an entity/feature/feature element model. In the entity/feature/feature element model, an entity may have one or more features, and each feature may have a set of pre-defined elements. Using a ship tracking system as an example, the entity itself may be a ship. The ship may have a plurality of features, such as ship size, crew information, identifying information, and so on. The ship size information could have feature elements corresponding to the maximum tonnage, volume, and so on. The crew information feature could have feature elements corresponding to specific positions on the ship (e.g., captain, helmsman, navigator, etc.). The identifying information could have feature elements corresponding to a registration number, port of registry, and so on.
An entity analytics system may determine “is a” and “is related to a” relationships using the entity/feature/feature element model. However, entity resolution using the entity/feature/feature element model may be limited in depth and breadth. Entity resolution using the entity/feature/feature element model also may not consider a case where an entity contains another entity. For example, since, in the entity/feature/feature element model, an entity may not contain another entity, resolution of an entity may miss significant opportunities for resolution of a super-entity.